The present invention relates to a whirlpool bath which performs a hot water blow-off control.
According to a basic form of conventional whirlpool baths, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 135058/84, a hot water circulation path comprising a hot water suction pipe and a hot water forced-feed pipe is disposed between a bathtub body and a circulating pump mounted outside the bathtub body, and an air intake portion is provided at an intermediate point of the hot water forced-feed pipe.
According to such construction, the hot water in the bathtub body is sucked through the hot water suction pipe by means of the circulating pump, and, at the same time, hot water is blown off into the bathtub body from a discharge portion of the hot water forced-feed pipe.
In this case, air which has been sucked in from the air intake portion by utilizing a negative pressure induced by the blow-off of hot water is mixed into the hot water to be blown off, whereby hot water bubbling with hot air is blown off.
Moreover, in the whirlpool bath having the above basic form, an adjusting valve for adjusting the volumetric rate at which air is introduced is provided at an intermediate point in an air intake pipe connected to the air intake portion, thereby changing the blow-off pressure of the hot water bubbling with hot air to provide a blow-off of desired pressure.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3861/88, there is described a whirlpool bath in which fine bubbles and normal bubbles larger in bubble diameter than the fine bubbles are blown off selectively or as a mixture together with hot water, thereby permitting old persons and sick persons to take a bath in addition to healthy persons.
However, the whirlpool bath described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 135058/84 merely permits the blow-off pressure of hot water to be changed by adjusting the volumetric rate at which air is introduced, and the whirlpool bath described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3861/88 merely permits selection between the blow-off of fine bubbles and that of normal bubbles.
Thus, both can merely operate at a single hot water blow-off mode and cannot change among various hot water blow-off modes.
Further, since it is impossible to change blow-off positions in a given cycle, there has been the drawback that the body of the bathing person is numbed against the desired stimulation of the hot water jet due to the constancy of the jet.